Lucent Denies Bankruptcy Buzz

4/04/2001 9:46 AM Eastern

By: Mike Farrell

Cable- and telecommunications-equipment vendor Lucent Technologies saidrumors that it is close to filing for bankruptcy protection are 'baseless.'

Rumors of a pending bankruptcy apparently began circulating early Wednesday,prompting investors to dump the stock. Lucent shares dropped to an all-time lowin early trading Wednesday -- $5.50 each, down $2.35. But the stock gained someof that ground back -- it closed at $6.78 per share, down $1.07 -- after Lucentissued a statement denying any bankruptcy plans.

'The rumors that Lucent is filing for bankruptcy are baseless andirresponsible,' chief financial officer Deborah Hopkins said in a preparedstatement.

Lucent has been under fire to reduce its $6.5 billion debt load while itweathers a declining business and mounting losses. In its fiscal first quarter,ended Dec. 31, the company reported a net loss of $1 billion, or 30 cents pershare.

Lucent was able to offload $2.5 billion of its debt through the initialpublic offering of its Agere Systems Inc. network-component unit last week. Thevendor said it will raise another $519 million through the issuance of anadditional 90 million shares of Agere, which could also be used to pay downdebt.